About Us

George M. WHITESIDES

Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor, Harvard University

George M. Whitesides received an A.B. degree from Harvard University in 1960 and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology (with J.D. Roberts) in 1964. He was a member of the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1963 to 1982. He joined the Department of Chemistry of Harvard University in 1982, and was Department Chairman 1986-89, and Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry from 1982-2004. He is now the Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor. He is renowned for his work in NMR spectroscopy, organometallic chemistry, molecular self-assembly, soft lithography, microfabrication, microfluidics, and nanotechnology. His present research interests include physical and organic chemistry, materials science, biophysics, complexity and emergence, surface science, microfluidics, optics, self-assembly, science for developing economies, catalysis, origin of life, rational drug design, cell-surface biochemistry, simplicity, dissipative systems, magnetic levitation in biology, paper diagnostics. Whitesides is a highly prolific author and patent holder. He has received many awards and obtained the highest Hirsch index rating of all living chemists in 2011.

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Michael SHULER

Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University

Michael L. Shuler is the Eckert Professor of Engineering in the Meing Department of Biomedical Engineering and in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University. Shuler has degrees in chemical engineering (BS, Notre Dame, 1969 and Ph.D., Minnesota, 1973) and has been a faculty member at Cornell University since 1974.  Shuler’s research includes development of ‘Body-on-a-Chip’ for testing pharmaceuticals for toxicity and efficacy, creation of production systems for useful compounds, such as paclitaxel from plant cell cultures, and construction of whole cell models relating genome to physiology. Shuler is CEO and President of Hesperos, a company founded to implement the ‘Body-on-a-Chip’ system. Shuler and F. Kangi have authored a popular textbook, ‘Bioprocess Engineering; Basic Concepts’ now in its third edition. He has an honorary doctorate from the University of Notre Dame. Shuler has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Science and is a fellow of numerous professional societies.

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David WEITZ

Director of the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Harvard University
Co-Director of the BASF Advanced Research Initiative
Associate Faculty Member, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering
Member, Kavli Institute for Bionano Science & Technology

Weitz received his PhD in physics from Harvard University and then joined Exxon Research and Engineering Company, where he worked for nearly 18 years.  He then became a professor of physics at the University of Pennsylvania and moved to Harvard at the end of the last millennium as professor of physics and applied physics.  He leads a group studying soft matter science with a focus on materials science, biophysics and microfluidics.  He has co-founded several companies to commercialize some of the microfluidics work developed in his lab.

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Takehiko KITAMORI

Professor, Department of Applied Chemistry, School of Engineering,
University of Tokyo

Professor Kitamori is Professor in the Department of Applied Chemistry, School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo. He was Vice President of the University of Tokyo after serving as Dean of Faculty and Graduate School of Engineering. Prof Kitamori has received numerous honors for innovative research, in areas including Micro/Extended-Nano Fluidics, Extended-Nano Space Chemistry, and Applied Laser Spectroscopy. He was a founding member of domestic academic society CHEMINAS (Society for Chemistry and Micro-Nano Systems) and international conference organization CBMS and ISMM. Prof Kitamori was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Lund University in 2016. He served as a board member of Lab on a Chip, Analyst, and other journals.

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Jean Paul THIERY

Toh Chin Chye Visiting Professor, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore
Visiting Professor, Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Science
Visiting Professor CCBIO, Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, The University of Bergen, Norway
Research Director CNRS Emeritus CNRS UMR 7057 Matter and Complex Systems, University Paris Denis Diderot, France
Research Director Emeritus Inserm Unit 1186 Comprehensive Cancer Center Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France

Jean Paul Thiery is Research Director Emeritus at the Comprehensive Cancer Center, Villejuif, France and a Visiting Professor at the School of Medicine of National University of Singapore (NUS). He was until June 2015, Professor and Head of the Biochemistry Department, School of Medicine, NUS. His influential works include pioneering studies in cell adhesion and migration in early embryogenesis and in elucidating the roles of growth factors and adhesion signaling molecules in Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transitions (EMT). Jean Paul Thiery is credited to be the first to propose that EMT controls carcinoma cell invasion and dissemination.

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Eun Chul CHO

Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Hanyang University

Eun Chul Cho joined BIGHEART in May 2017 as a Visiting Professor, and he is currently an Associate Professor in the department of chemical engineering at Hanyang University, South Korea. His Organic and Inorganic Structure Laboratory focuses on marking novel micro/nanostructures with organic and inorganic materials. The structures are built through chemical synthesis of colloids, assemblies of colloids and organic molecules, and various other technologies. These structures can be used as/for optical sensors & imaging, solar energy harvesting, biomimetic (opto)electronics, cosmetics, plasmonic-based photosynthesis, and artificial skins for soft electronics.

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Gwo-Bin “Vincent” LEE

Tsing Hua Chair Professor, Department of Power Mechanical Engineering,
Institutes of Biomedical Engineering and NanoEngineering and Microsystems,
National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan

Gwo-Bin Lee received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering at National Taiwan University and his Ph.D. in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering from University of California. Dr. Lee is currently a Chair Professor in the Department of Power Mechanical Engineering at National Tsing Hua University where he is the director of the MEMS Design and Microfabrication Lab and Microfluidic Biochips Lab. His research interests focus on nano-biotechnology, micro/nanofluidics and their biomedical applications. He has developed several micro/nano-scale platforms for cell, protein, and DNA manipulation and detection. Dr. Lee has published over 270 SCI journal papers, 380 conference papers, and filed 154 patents (104 patents granted) as well as published 8 book chapters. He has received several academic awards, including Excellent Research Award from National Science Council in Taiwan (2007, 2011, 2014), National Innovation Award (2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2016), Distinguished Engineering Professor Award from the Chinese Engineering Society (2009), Distinguished Kuo-Ting Lee Researcher Award from Kuo-Ting Lee Foundation (2009), and Outstanding Inventor Award (2011). He is a Fellow of the Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and the Chinese Society of Mechanical Engineering, Taiwan as well as ASME, RSC, IET and IEEE. Currently, he has editorial roles for Micro and Nano Letters, IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology, Scientific Reports, IET Bionanotechnology, and Microfluidics and Nanofluidics.

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Changhuei YANG

Thomas G. Myers Professor of Electrical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Medical Engineering, California Institute of Technology

Professor Yang’s research efforts are in the areas of novel microscopy development and time-reversal based optical focusing. Prof. Yang joined the California Institute of Technology in 2003. He is a professor in the areas of Electrical Engineering, Bioengineering and Medical Engineering. He has received the NSF Career Award, the Coulter Foundation Early Career Phase I and II Awards, and the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. In 2008 he was named one of Discover Magazine’s ‘20 Best Brains Under 40’.  He is a fellow of the Coulter foundation, AIMBE, OSA and SPIE.

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Hansang CHO

Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina

After a degree and Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Seoul National University, Hansang Cho obtained his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from University California Berkeley in 2010. He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School/Mass General Hospital, 2010-2014. His research is focussed on microfluidics-based cell chips including brain-on-chips and cancer-on-chip, surface plasmonics-based optofluidic mechanics, healthcare diagnostic and environment-monitoring platforms and sensors. He has received numerous awards and is a member of the Society for Neuroscience and the Biomedical Engineering Society.

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Wei-Chuan SHIH